


Aether

by Vein_Is_Simply_Tired



Series: KHR : The Invasive Species Story [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Barest hint of KHR sorry, Daemon's Power Tier from 1 to 5, Deliberate use of unicodes as subtitute for daemon names/titles/keywords, Earth & Aether, Imagine Aether like agar.io, Modern day Earth, No "Heroes" & "Villains", No Quirk / Cannon!Quirk as Mana Signature, Summoner's Power Tier from 0 (absolutely useless) to 5(OP), Summoners & Daemons, Summoning Au, Summons & Summoning, Yes that blob game agar.io
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2019-12-30 07:10:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18310706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vein_Is_Simply_Tired/pseuds/Vein_Is_Simply_Tired
Summary: Tier 0 Summoner, Midoriya Izuku, is desperate to summon something,anything, or risk being expelled from the Academy for failing practicals one too many times, but when a certainsomethinganswers his summon...'Oh.my.God. What have I done?!' (゜ロ゜;)





	1. The Beginning of the End

_Humans and Daemons._

_Earth and Aether._

_Every human produces mana and every daemon consumes mana._

* * *

(Izuku Age 6)

Inko’s hands unconsciously grip her skirt as the Tier 4 Summoner delivers his analysis result.

“Your son drew the summoning circle well and poured in enough mana. I believe his failure to summon anything was caused by unique mana composition.”

“ _Unique mana composition_?” Inko repeats with confusion on her face, one that her son mirrors.

“To put it simply,” Tier 4 Summoner turns his gaze to her son, “Izuku, what is your favorite food?”

“Um, katsudon?”

“And what food do you hate the most?”

“Uuuh,” her son glances at her and she gives an encouraging smile, “B-brussels sprouts,” he timidly admitted.

“Now, if I give you a bowl of delicious katsudon right now, will you eat it?”

Her son rapidly nodded.

“But what if I give you a bowl of brussels sprouts?”

He grimaces, taking her order to eat his vegetables seriously even if he dislikes it.

“It’s the same thing with mana and Daemons. Every human’s mana has their own taste for Daemons. Some think it is tasty while others hate it. So the reason why you couldn’t summon anything was because the daemons you’re trying to attract didn’t think your mana taste good.

Technically it’s not your fault. Keep trying to summon different varieties of daemons. They, like humans, have their own taste preference, I’m sure you’ll attract one who likes yours sooner or later.”

The mother and son thank the Tier 4 Summoner then go back home with anxiety and hope.

* * *

_7 years later, with not even a single success in summoning, Izuku’s heart is weary of feeling disappointment every single day._

* * *

(Izuku Age 13)

“Hey, Deku! Let me guess what will you summon today!” Bakugou said loudly, “Not-a-single-fucking-thing! Ha!” his classmates laugh and jeer in the background.

Izuku keeps his head down as he mumbled, “I’m trying for rain runes based Dae-.”

His eyes widen in horror as Bakugou’s foot steps onto his circle and he smears the chalk line which destabilizes the mana poured into it. Several classmates yelp and Izuku quickly throws himself backward as an explosion happens.

_Boom!_

When the light and smoke dissipates, Bakugou is standing on the blackened floor with a red aura surrounding his body and the Daemon he summoned today, a large bat-winged fire serpent, hisses loudly.

“ _Wake up_ ,” he coldly and cruelly says, “Your mana is so fucking disgusting, no Daemon will ever want it. Quit already, your pathetic ass is sullying the academy’s name.”

‘Don’t cry. _Don’t cry_.’ Izuku’s nail dug into his hand, ‘There are people who love eating glasses and ashes, one day I’ll summon _something_.’

* * *

_If you give up, then the chance is zero._

_If you don’t give up, then even if it’s only 0.00001%, it is still possible._

* * *

(Half a Year Later)

That [ _one day_ ] isn’t today and Izuku needs that [ _one day_ ] to come _years ago_.

“I’m very sorry about this, Midoriya,” his homeroom teacher has an apologetic look on his face as he delivers the ultimatum, “I know you are a diligent student, but this academy is a _summoning_ academy, if you still can’t summon anything at the last practical exam, then we can’t let you graduate.”

Izuku’s tears drop before can tell himself to not cry.

 

“ _I’m sorry, mom, I’m sorry_ ,” he cries after he tells his mom about the bad news.

“Oh no Izuku, _no_ ,” she hugged him tightly and sobbed, “ _I_ am sorry, please forgive _me_.”

“No, mom,” Izuku shakes his head, “ _Please_. It’s not _your_ fault... Not _our_ fault,” he allows himself that one point.

It’s not his fault that his mana is unpalatable to Daemons, just as it’s not his mother’s fault for birthing him this way.

* * *

_Sometimes, things are just like a natural disaster. It’s no one’s fault just... a really bad luck_

* * *

“Midoriya, are you sure about this?” his final summoning practical test teacher skeptically asks.

“Yes, I’ll be using a general-array,” Izuku nods. General-array is composed of neutral runes that will spread his mana to every direction possible. The chance of attracting Daemons with this array is low since his mana will be spread very thinly, but it is his last resort since he has tried thousands of specific arrays and none of them works.

“Alright… If you’re sure then you can start,” his teacher allows without further ado.

Izuku draws the summoning circle carefully, triple checking every rune and line. After he’s done, he placed both of his hands on the ground.

“I’m starting,” he announces and pours his mana into the circle, activating it. The circle’s gray light shines brighter as he pours in more of his mana. ‘The only benefit of using general-array is its large mana limit, so _please_ ,’ he continues, ignoring the safety limit.

Vaguely he hears his teacher orders him to stop, but he _can’t_. This is his _last_ chance, ‘I don’t care what happens to me so, _come_!’ His vision starts to blacken as his body ran low on mana.

“ _Goddamnit! Fucking answer my summon!_ ” He yells and pours everything he has.

The white light turns orange and explodes on the room but Izuku, with his closed eyes and unconscious mind, cannot see it.

* * *

Izuku woke up to the feeling of warmth and safety.

“Nnnh,” he lifts his heavy eyelids and jerks when he saw an overly close oval orange eyes staring at him. The owner of the eyes is a small, baby-sized Deamon that looks like a lion with manes made-up of orange flames that don’t burn.

[Hello, um, how can I help you?] The voice questions directly into Izuku’s head.

“I- I’m fine?” Izuku questions back, “Whose Daemon are you?”

[… Yours?] the Daemon doesn’t sound convincing.

“No, you’re not,” Izuku tiredly rejects.

[But I came here through your summoning circle so you should be my summoner?]

Izuku ignores the Daemon - _not the first time someone orders their Daemon to pretend to be his_ \- and turns his head sideways to survey the room.

‘The academy’s infirmary,’ so he passed-out after his summoning, not unexpected considering the amount of mana he poured. If anything, he is surprised that he isn’t feeling worse.

[Your body was really low in mana so I used mine to help you. I feel that you’re alright now.]

“Help me? So you’re the healer’s summon?” Izuku asks as he tries to push himself into sitting position.

[I’m yours] the Daemon leaps and settles on Izuku’s shoulder. It’s surprisingly light.

[You don’t believe me, do you?] the Daemon asks dejectedly with its tail curling whipping back and forth.

Izuku refrains from answering.

[Why? What am I doing wrong?]

“You’re not,” if it somehow is, it’ll be a horrifying thing.

Daemons’ intelligence and ability is classified into Tiers. For this Daemon to be able to communicate smoothly with Izuku, it must be at least Tier 3. Likewise, summoners are also classified into similar Tiers.

A summoner is only allowed to summon daemons of current and plus one tier. Any higher and they won’t be able to control their daemons. When that happens, the best case scenario is the Over-Tier daemon would agree to peacefully return to Aether, worst-case scenario is a tragedy filled with causalities.

Summoning arrays are required by law to include anti Over-Tier summoning measures which Izuku made sure his general-array have. If, _if_ this daemon is his summon…

Izuku shakes his head and tries to get up. He manages to stand on his feet before the door opened.

_Click_

“Oh, you’re awake and mobile,” their academy’s healer states in a surprised tone. “Hmm, strange, your level of mana depletion must’ve not been as severe as I previously thought.

Well sit down, let me recheck your status,” she orders and he complies.

The healer’s places her hand on top of Izuku’s head and her summon, a swan-like Daemon, spread open its wings. Soft white light engulfs Izuku’s body and a few seconds later, she retracts her hand.

“You’re a bit lethargic but your mana pathway and body is working properly. Get a good night sleep and you should be completely fine,” she informs. Her eyes flick to her summon before they return to him. “Also, congratulations on your first successful summoning!” she gives him a bright smile.

“Eh?” Izuku gives her a confused look.

“You’re really lucky to summon it,” she points to the Daemon resting on his shoulder, “Before you pass out. That was a seriously reckless move,’ her tone sharpens, “If it didn’t come and took in your mana, your circle will destabilize and I don’t need to tell you how bad it is _right_?”

Izuku’s face pales dramatically and his confused look morphs into dread.

“Oh dear, don’t be so scared,” the healer’s tone softens as she misinterpreted his look. “We understand your circumstances and since it works out, we decide to let this event slide,” she reassures him, “As long as you don’t do it again, everything is fine.”

No, they don’t _understand_ and it’s not _fine_.

Izuku opens his mouth but the healer continues before he could confess, “We check your daemon, it’s a Tier 1 mid-level fire element so even with the points deducted for unsafe procedure, you pass your exam. Once again, congratulations,” she smiles, “You manage to do it just in time.”

Izuku shuts his mouth and turns to the mini-lion on his shoulder. It looks back at him and let out a rather cute sounding, “Gaooo~”

* * *

Izuku walks back home feeling cold and numb. He knows he should’ve told the truth. Over-Tiers are _dangerous_ , he can’t feel any connection between him and this daemon, meaning that it’s free to do whatever it wants to do, and he wouldn’t be able to stop it.

‘ _But it doesn’t do anything_ ,’ a treacherous part of his mind says. It’s just lying on his shoulder, seemingly content to laze and gaze around. ‘ _If you tell the truth, not only they’ll fail you, they’ll also send you to the police. What if they don’t believe it’s an accident? What if they think you’re a desperate Tier 0 summoner using underhanded means to pass?_ ’

His mother is crying tears of happiness as she believes his summon is successful and he rightfully pass. He can only give her a weak smile and says, “I’m sorry mom, but can we celebrate tomorrow? I’m having a really hard time believing this.”

“Oh, of course, Izuku,” she mirrors his smile, “I’ve cook curry for tonight’s dinner, but a proper celebration needs katsudon, right? Let’s do it tomorrow, I’ll make you the best katsudon ever.”

“Thank you, mom,” he nods and they spend dinner in silence before he retreats to his room.

_Click_

 

“ _Please go back,_ ” Izuku begged once they’re alone in his room.

[No…] From its position on the bed, it lowered itself with its triangle ears lowered flat to its head, [I’m very sorry but I really don’t want to go back to Aether, please don’t send me back,] it pleads.

Izuku clench his fists, “ _Why_?”

[Uhhhh,] its tail flicks, [✿ keep… _harassing_ me!]

“Harassing?” Izuku echoes the word.

[✿ is pushing me to do something I don’t want and isn’t taking _no_ for an answer… Honestly, all I want is to spend a quiet decade with my ፨,] it lets out a low whine.

Izuku sympathizes. How many time Bakugou and the other students told him to stop trying and quit academy? Still, no matter how much Izuku sympathizes the fact that it’s dangerous doesn’t change.

“Please go back or I’ll need to inform the authorities and they’ll send strong daemons to destroy your body.” Daemons need a physical body to stay on Earth. If it’s destroyed, they’re forced to return to Aether.

It whines [I don’t like fighting… Um, um, oh I know!] It perks up, [You have problem summoning right? I can help if you let me stay! As long as you’re not trying to summon 天天天, any daemon type you want will answer.]

Izuku’s first response is a _no_.

His second response is also a _no_.

His third response is to press his lips together in a straight line.

_What is right and what is easy?_

“I… _can’t_ …,” his head throbs with stress headache and he covers his face with both of his hands.

 [Are you alright?] It worriedly asks.

Izuku lower his hands, “What will you do if I let you stay?”

[This is my first time being summoned so I don’t know what am I allowed to do. If you tell me, I’ll do my best to follow!] It’s like a gullible child, eager to follow and please despite the fact that Izuku _can’t_ tell it what to do.

‘Wait,’ his mind races, ‘Perhaps it _doesn’t_ know?’

“Alright,” Izuku takes a deep breath and exhales. “I’m going to sleep. Until I wake up, don’t go out of this room, don’t make noise, don’t destroy anything and don’t hurt anyone, understand?”

It nods soundlessly.

Izuku slowly nods back then gets under his blanket. He can’t think straight with his exhausted condition and this is a test. If it follows his rules, then…

 

_He thought sleep would be hard to come, but within minutes of closing his eyes, his mind goes quiet and he into a dreamless sleep._

* * *

Izuku wakes up feeling like he dreamt of a strange day, but reality proves that it can be weirder since he opens his eyes to a group of baby-sized daemons with various shapes and colors lounging and lying around on a fluffy circular bed. Which is, _what_?

The mini-lion daemon lifts its head and greets him [You wake up? Good morning.]

“Good… morning,” Izuku’s mind hamster is running round and round on its wheel, “Whose daemons are you all? Where did the bed come from? How did you come in? Teleporting into a privately-owned structure without the owner’s permission is illegal. Wait, is that bed a construction.”

Multiple eyes of different color turn in his direction.

[They’re my ፨, I summoned them… Uh, should I ask for permission first?] _no no no no_ , _permission_ isn’t the problem with that sentence, [And yes, this bed is a mana construction] it’s so realistic, cool! Wait, _wait_ ,

“What do you mean you _summoned_ them?” Izuku asks with wide eyes.

[Um, it’s not much different from what human summoners do? First, I establish a connection to Aether then they came,] mini-lion says easily like he’s describing the weather.

“But that’s _not possible_ ,” Izuku’s stressed-out, “A daemon can’t sync with Earth’s natural mana lines and without it you can’t-”

The cream-colored cat-like daemon with red flames streaming out of its ears cut him off with a loud warning growl. Before Izuku could worry about his safety, the cat turns its attention to mini-lion and silently lowered its stance.

[Sorry] mini-lion apologetically says and in an instant, summoning-circles with runes Izuku can’t read appear under each daemons’ body and they disappear.

‘ _Holy shit_ ,’ Izuku’s jaw drops.

[What should I do next?] mini-lion inquires.

“E-explain how you did that,” Izuku demands with wide eyes.

 

_Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla._

(゜ロ゜;)

_Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla. Bla._

 

Human’s ability to manipulate mana is limited, that’s why they make a pact with daemons, creatures whose everything is done through fine mana manipulation.

To mini-lion’s credit, it does try to explain, but with a lot of untranslatable terminologies and metaphors Izuku can’t imagine, all that it achieves is giving him another stress-headache.

He mentally raises a white flag and shakes his head.

“Tell me one thing please, can all daemon do that?” he asks the important question for humanity.

[I don’t think so] humanity is safe! [I can do that because they’re my ፨. If I try to summon other daemons, I’m not sure if I’ll summon the specific one I have in mind.]

“But you _could_ ,” he stressed-out.

 [Yes? I’m not lying when I say I’ll help you summon.]

 _Helping Izuku summon_ is _illegal_. _Summoning something itself_ is _impossible_.

“You’re _not_ a Tier 3 daemon,” he states.

[I’m not familiar with Tiers, though if I have to say, I’m quite strong?] it tilts its head. [I don’t like pointless fighting, but I can if I should.]

2 sentence appears in Izuku’s mind.

_Oh God, what have I summon?_

And

_Dear All Might, what should I do?_

_On a side note, the bed is the most realistic mana construction he ever saw. It behaves completely like a normal bed and doesn’t emit any mana. Izuku wouldn’t believe that it’s not!real if mini-lion didn’t dispel it with a tap._


	2. The Thread of Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the problem of different platforms' capability for rendering unicode, I change last chapter's ▽ symbol to 天, so from ▽▽▽ becomes 天天天
> 
> Last chapter's important characters: ✿, ፨, 天天天
> 
> This chapter have several more but the only one that's important is: ○ (Ignore the rest)
> 
> ps: If you see something like a blank box, blank box with 'x' inside or blank box with '?' inside, those are unicodes that fail to load, please inform me so I can change them, thank you
> 
>  
> 
> Warning, this chapter contains [Innuendo]

Daemon need mana to keep materializing their physical body, the higher their Tier is, the more mana they need. That’s why most summoner summons when they need help then send the daemon back to Aether once they’re done.

Some those whose job/daily life doesn’t require large amount of mana likes to keep low Tier low intelligence daemon as pseudo-pet. Easily controlled, doesn’t require anything other than mana, doesn’t make a mess and can be sacrificed in case of emergency.

 

“I’ll call you Natsu,” Izuku named the mini-lion daemon, “Because you remind me of summer(natsu)’s sun. Bright yellow, orange and can be really hot.”

[Okay?] Daemons don’t get the concept of _names_ for they refer each other with mana-signatures, something which Izuku obviously can’t do. Mana signature manipulation is a skill required for promotion from Tier 4 to Tier 5, the highest tier that only a handful number of humans ever achieve.

 

Come to think about it,

 

“Why am I not dead?” is the main topic that Izuku’s mind conjured as he’s walking to High Academy’s building.

Natsu blinks, [Do you want to be dead?]

“No, please don’t kill me,” Izuku quickly says before he really ends up dead. When daemons die, their soul _reincarnates_ of sort. They lost their mana storage and memories, but ultimately live on as an entity.

“I mean, you’ve been here for three weeks, my mana shouldn’t be able to support you… Are you taking mana from someone else?” He frowns.

[Yes, the Earth]

Izuku’s eyes turn blank for the n-th times since he summons this Over-Tier daemon, “ _Earth_ as in this planet in this world, not a human called _Earth?_ ”

[Wow, human can be called Earth?]

_… Hello, your daughter got into a bicycle accident with an alien spaceship._

_But it doesn’t make sense!_

_Yes._

Izuku covers his face with his hands and screech internally.

* * *

* * *

(Aether)

✿ floats through the emptiness, waiting for the time.

The concept human calls Time is difficult to measure in Aether, all ✿ can say is after some time and hundreds of human summoning runes flashing, ✿ finally find the one mana signature ✿ ‘s waiting for.

(Earth)

“Surrender, criminals!” Tier 5 summoner, Yagi Toshinori titled All Might, shouts at the law-breaking summoners that try to rob a museum. They rage at him and while they’re not strong, All Might’s concern is to minimize the damage to the museum’s artefact.

His specialization, summoning strength enchantment daemon, won’t help him much for this task.

‘No choice!’ He touches the summoning array sewed onto the back side of his mantle and activates it.

Spherical dark teal runes glow high above All Might’s head and inside it, a daemon shaped like a dark teal haired young lady wearing a large puffy hat and black-white outfit comes into existence.

In that instant, the fight is over as his enemies’ daemon stops and lower themselves to the ground and stay that way against their summoners’ wish.

Tier 5 high-level is the highest rating a daemon be classified as, but even among others of same class that All Might can summon, this one is the strongest and most special, therefore he calls it _Princess_.

“Thank you for answering, Princess. Please give me a minute to capture them,” All Might asks for permission and work quickly after the Tier 5 daemon nods.

 

‘Thank you for waiting, what can I do for you, Princess?’ All Might asks. On average, 19 out of 20 attempts to summon Princess will fail. For the 1 that succeeds, instead of mana, Princess will asks for a favour in return. They’re favor that will help humanity too thus All Might readily agrees to every one of them.

[Find ○, send ○ back to Aether]

To All Might, ○ feels like bathing in warm sunlight.

‘Is it an Over-Tier?’ All Might clarifies and exhales when Princess nods.

‘Where can I find that daemon?’

[○ is hiding, I can’t see clearly…] Princess’ eyes held a faraway look, [A lot of young humans… Chairs. Desks. High Academy. Cherry Blossoms. New. Hope and secrets.]

Princess shuts her eyes and when she opens them, they’re focused and filled with determination, [Even if ○ is hiding, ○ can’t escape from fate. ○’s summoner is among the best of the young humans called First Year. You need to find ○ and send ○ back.] Princess’s physical form starts to fade.

“I will, Princess,” All Might promises loud even though it’s not necessary.

Princess nods and fades away.

All Might takes out his phone and dials his reliable partner, Sir Nighteye’s number. If All Might wants any chance of successfully carry-out Princess’ vague task, he’s going to need his help.

* * *

Sir silently takes off his glasses, wipe the lenses and wears it again, “Let me get this straight, you need to find an unknown Over-Tier daemon without knowing anything about it and without any clue other than it’s summoner is among the best first-year students.”

“Uh, yes?” All Might fidgets nervously under Sir’s sharp stare, “We can start by visiting Yuuei?” He tries to offer his idea.

“No, that would be inefficient,” Sir picks up one of his specially-made stamps and presses it to his table. Light shines and a very familiar pink-purple armadillo-like daemon floats into existence.

“First, we need to find out what exactly are we trying to find,” Sir states.

“Got it,” All Might’s specialty is summoning daemons with strengthening capability while Sir’s specialty lies in tracking and intelligence gathering daemons. All Might extends his hand palm-up, the daemon moves to floats above it and tries his best to emulate ○.

◍ the pink daemon shows no response.

◉ ‘Not this one…’

◔ ‘Uh, like this?’

◎ ‘No? How about this?’

[BiiIIii?] Sir’s daemon projects in a bubbly high note and spins in place then let out a mana signature, ᛊ.

All Might shut his eyes and feels, “Very similar but something feels off… A little bit gentler?”

[Bii?] ◌ “Like that! But tougher.”

[Biiii] ○ “Yes! Exactly like that!” All Might exclaims.

[BiiBiBiiiIII!] Sir’s daemon shrills and Earth _morphs ~~into **Aether**~~_.

 

_No matter how many times All Might feels Aether, he can never get used to it. A world where the 5 basic human senses don’t work. No sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, and no touch. All that’s left is an endless emptiness filled with various mana signatures._

_This one is quite strong and lesser ones instinctively move away when it approaches._

_Floats, floats, in this world there is no down nor up, no end and no beginning._

_Floats, floats, stops._

_This one sense a lot of mana signatures floating in close distance and one that seems to go on forever._

_Floats, danger? No danger? Floats._

_Floats, oh this mana signature… this one knows this mana signature..._ ○ … _it’s ingrained deep into this one’s consciousness forever through unnumbered reincarnations._

_Like what humans call The Sun,_ ○ _is of unprecedented size and this one feels content, safe and nourished just by being nearby it._

_This one is not alone, countless daemon floats around_ ○ _and echoes 天天天.  
_

Sir opens his eyes and he’s _back_ to Earth.

He pushes down the bubbling panic.

The only people that he knows that are capable of controlling a daemon with that level of strength is All Might, and the Minister of Summoning, titled All-for-One.

Neither of them are currently _among the best first-year students_. The thought of a daemon as strong as, ‘No, it might even be stronger than All Might’s _Princess_ ,’ being summoned as an Over-Tier is…

“Emergency time. We need to throw your connection and start a mass-scale search immediately…,” Sir pushes his glasses up and continues in a conspiratorial tone, “Luckily for us, you have a _strong connection_ to the Minister.”

“…,” All Might blinks, and his face morphs into embarrassed horror, “No! Not you too!”

Sir maintains his natural straight face, “It’s alright. I know that you and him aren’t secretly _joined at the hip_.”

All Might’s body shakes.

Sir’s fingers are 100% busy typing a formal request letter for aid, but his mouth is free to _sincerely_ drop the bomb, “You haven’t made it _that far_. Good luck on _touchdown_ -ing that guy.”

‘3. 2. 1. _Boom_.’

“No! No!” All Might exclaims. “That’s horrible! You’re horrible! I can’t believe you believe _that stuff_ from _gossip magazine_!”

_Snicker_.

“Wait, you’re messing with me, aren’t you?” All Might accuses.

Sir snickers louder without covering his mouth, _taptaptaptaptap_.

* * *

“Regarding your request for mass mobilization,” All-for-One says after receiving the request, “I’m afraid I can’t grant it.”

“ _Now_ ,” he raises his hand to stop the incoming protests, “I do believe in you and we do need to resolve this problem, it’s just that this method you’re proposing could result in more harm than good.”

All Might and Sir Nighteye shut their mouth and wait for him to finish explaining.

“From what I understand, this Over-Tier daemon is _hiding_. With its mana strength, and subsequentially its intelligence, it should know how to not attract attention and as the result, it would lay low and wouldn’t make any drastic moves.

In short, at least for now, everyone is safe.

But what would happen if suddenly everyone knows about its existence and tries to find it to de-summon it?

Anything, whether it is human, animal or daemon, is most dangerous when cornered so I apologize, I can’t grant your request… At least not openly.”

Their grim looks lightened at the last part.

“How about we disguise the mass search as something else that won’t raise warning flags? Something like the Yuuei’s Junior Summoning Tournament but National Wide?

We’ve been planning for this event for 2 years, it won’t be suspicious if I push the schedule a few months early. Also because of the scale, a lot of students and school personnel will be involved and in the name of preventing unfairness, we can check and monitor them closely.

We’ll need to smoothen the details later, but for now, what do you think about this idea?”

“It’s GOOD!” All Might smiles widely and gives a thumb up.

“I have no objection,” Sir agrees.

 

_All-for-One’s benevolent Minister look melts away after his guests left…_

_… then he smiles with cold eyes and colder heart._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Current important characters count: 4 (✿ ○ ፨ 天天天)
> 
>  
> 
> A/N:  
>  ~~" _I would apologize for the length of this chapter, but I know I will soon be apologizing again and you’ll tire of that eventually, so I have to consider using apologies sparingly._ "~~
> 
> Actually, let's just make this the new length standard, around 2k per week sounds good? I don't have to slave too hard and you won't get a subpar/rushed chapter, win-win.


	3. On the corner of First and Amistad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a number of symbols, but none of the new one are important
> 
> So important characters: ✿, ○, ፨, 天天天

Izuku is revising his 9th circle for the 5th times when the summoning teacher tells him off, “Class is over Midoriya!”

“2 minutes!” Izuku desperately shouts but his hand can’t work faster than it already is, “Give me 2 minutes, no, just 1 please, _please_!”

The teacher sighs, “Fine, 1 minute, complete that circle and no more, got it?”

“ _Yesthankyouverymuch!_ ”

‘ _Balanceisthekey,IneedtoputanIsazinthemiddleofKaunoandviceversa,alsotopreventthemfromminglingIneedtomakethecontainmentstronger_ ,’ _mutter mutter mutter._

“There!” Izuku throws the chalk away, slam both hands down and pour his mana.

[That’s a ᕙ, the target is ⪦. Is it close enough?] Natsu asks from his usual spot on Izuku’s shoulder and shifts its position as Izuku slumps dejectedly and shakes his head. He can barely feel the difference between the first and second mana signature, but if Natsu feels the need to ask, then it’s _not_ close enough.

“Ok you’re done,” the teacher mark something on his scoresheet, most likely a big fat 0 for failed summoning, then exists the class without further ado.

“Geez Deku, that’s pathetic, you’re trying too hard for _nothing_ ,” his classmate says in a mocking tone, “You’re still a useless Deku that can’t summon anything, bet you _cheat_ on that final exam.”

Izuku’s non-reply this time is because the accusation is _true_ and not because it’s futile to talk back.

Natsu is scarily capable that Izuku feels like it’s _above_ Tier 4 low-level, -‘ _All Might please help me, did I summon Tier 4 mid-level daemon  (_ _ﾟ_ _Д_ _ﾟ_ _;) ?!_ ’-, and if Izuku wants it to, it can rig any random circle Izuku draws and produce successful summoning.

‘That won’t do,’ Izuku refuses. Even he has a bottom limit in how low he allows himself to sink.

The compromise he made with himself is that Natsu will specify a certain mana signature and Izuku will make an array that would summon a daemon with that signature, if he comes close then Natsu will summon appropriate daemon for him. That way, in the future, if Natsu left Izuku can still work as summoning circle analyzer or mana signature recognizer.

Izuku silently erases his circles, it’s surprisingly easy to ignore mockeries and taunts when you know you can cheat your way to successful summoning each time… Izuku’s mind imagines the scenario where he does that…

‘From 0 to 100% is suspicious as hell! They’ll catch me and interrogates me!’ He shudders, ‘Nope, nope, this way of succeeding once in 30-40 tries is good enough.’

 

It is.

…

…..

……..

Σ(OAO；) _Izuku Shock_!!!

 

“ _What_?! They’re doing _that_ this year?!” Izuku gasps at the huge poster hanging on the notice board.

 

**_National Wide Junior Summoning Festival!_ **

**_Do you have what it takes to become the best?!_ **

 

[Are you alright?]

(((✪Д✪))) Izuku rapidly nods, “Junior Summoning Festival! It’s Yuuei’s most famous and prestigious event! If you win it, your future career is guaranteed to be smooth sailing with all huge companies scouting you! There have been plans about making it a National Wide event, just like the one for adults, but I thought they won’t implement it until next year at least!”

[That’s good?]

Izuku stills and wistfully replies, “ _Yeah, it’s really good._ ”

* * *

(Yuuei)

(Special Class - 1A)

Aizawa Shōta sighs lethargically as he drags himself to his classroom to deliver the news. Their unruliness decreases a bit after he expels the shorty that misuses his summon to harass female students, but there are still 19 of them left. So tiring.

 

“Good morning, I bring news. First, Yuuei’s Junior Summoning Festival is canceled,” he directly drops the bomb and watches his class explodes figuratively. His frequent summon, a black cat like daemon, is already too familiar with this case and it voluntarily opens its eyes without needing his order.

Negative enchantment for mobility, also known as Still Hex. Very useful for crowd control but drains mana like crazy.

Black cat closes its eyes and Shōta stifles a tired yawn.

The kids obediently go back to their respective seat and silence themselves.

“Second, we will hold Internal Summoning Competition in three weeks’ time, and those who display excellent result will get the chance to enter National Wide Junior Summoning Festival.”

Thankfully this time, instead of gossiping among themselves, they have the sense to raise their hands and ask him for information.

* * *

(Aldera Academy)

The students chatter excitedly as they stand on their position, spread out evenly on the empty wide ground they used to use for summoning practice.

“Without further ado, let’s begin the selection for National Summoning Festival,” the speaker is not a teacher, she’s one of the Festival’s committee members, “Time limit 10 minutes, summon a water type daemon without using water or water related runes. _Start_!”

She watches coldly as the students freeze, some even dare to open their mouth to complain. ‘Third rated summoning academy will only have third rated students.’

1 minute is up, the only one who kneels and draws something is a dark-green haired boy on the far corner of the field. _Drawing_ , not creating an array. ‘Hastiness breed mistakes. What good is a rushed and faulty array. No matter how fast and complicated-looking you make it, if you can’t summon anything, it’s useless.’

 

After the time limit is over, committee member gives a thin smile to Aldera’s principal and inform him that, “Sorry,” _not sorry_ , “I’m afraid that the level of students here isn’t quite up to the Festival’s standard.” And left to conduct the test on yet another 3rd rated academy.

‘What a waste of time,’ she complains, ‘I wish I can be the one supervising Yuuei.’ Yuuei’s is mostly formalities since all their special class members will be accepted, but it definitely would be a lot more interesting than this place.

 

(Yuuei)

“Goddamit Bakugou!” Denki screams as Bakugou’s summon runs wild, destroying Denki’s almost-completed circle, “We’re supposed to be a team!”

“Fuck off background extra!”

“Who are you calling background extra!” Denki takes out a ready-made circle from his pocket. It’s expensive and should only be used for emergency-purpose but he’s too pissed to care.

“I choose you!” He shouts and activates the circle.

_Crackle! BANG!!_

“Very impressive, as expected of Yuuei,” the committee member assigned to Yuuei nods approvingly.

Shōta keeps his thought to himself since he is obligated to not talk bad about his students to outsiders. They’re full of potential, true, but there’s nothing impressive about committing deliberate friendly fire except for impressively immature and impressively irresponsible.

* * *

Izuku sighs. He knows he wouldn’t succeed once the committee member sets the time limit. 10 minutes is barely enough to create 3 circles and the requirement doesn’t help.

[I don’t understand, you want to succeed but why don’t you let me help?] Izuku already makes peace with his failure, but it seems like Natsu have a harder time accepting it.

“ _What the target you set?_ ” Izuku asks in low volume.

[水]

“ _What’s the closest I get?_ ”

[汞]

“ _How different are they?_ ”

[Uh, one is water type and the other is metal type… But I don’t understand, you just need to order me and if you succeed, you’re not hurting anyone.]

“ _Not physically, but I definitely can’t sleep well afterward_.”

[My water ፨ can help with that]

“ _That’s not the point_ ,” Izuku shakes his head.

[What is the point?] Natsu’s tail flicks and brush against his ear.

How do you explain the concept of morality to another species?

“ _Forget it, it’s fine_.”

[It’s not fine? I need to understand. Summoned daemons are to fulfill their summoners’ wish, but you’re telling me to not fulfill yours. Why?]

“ _Uuuh, later at home,_ ” he has a feeling that particular conversation will take a lot of time.

 

 _It doesn’t occur to Izuku to ask why Natsu_ [ _needs_ ] _to know._

* * *

* * *

(2 Days Later)

Izuku thinks that with all the shock he has lately, he’ll be immune to heart-attack…. He’s proven wrong when during his latest summoning class, his summoning circle produces a black cloaked thing looking and standing as tall as a normal adult.

“!!!” someone yelps and the room quickly descends into chaos as more and more people notice _his_ (Natsu’s) summon.

“Midoriya! Get back!”  His teacher shouts.

The exact rule/principle behind the physical form that a daemon choose is still unknown, but generally, the more humanoid they are, the higher their tier is. The part of that thing that’s not covered by its cloak is exactly like a human so the teacher and students are not wrong to believe it’s an Over-Tier.

‘Natsu, _what the hell_?!’ Izuku tries his best to convey that to Natsu via disbelieving and half-in-shock wide-eyed stare.

Apparently, it works since Natsu replies, [That’s ✿’s mist ፨] _thank you for the information but it doesn’t help/explain anything_ QAQ _!_  [It hijacks my connection to Aether,] Natsu sulks.

‘Ok, good to know it’s not a deliberate action,’ small mercies.

[Let me negotiate it back to Aether,] bigger mer _ci_ \- _x1EHjuiLdLpN/L9Hc060Hf5HjcKLdPtKEJInCkYBj2E=_

Because his poor heart is still beating, Natsu transforms into another very human looking form with chocolate brown hair and glowing orange eyes, clad in a black suit completed with a black tie.

Izuku is definitely crying right now, ‘Mom, I’m sorry. _My_ first time wearing a nice formal suit like that will be in a courtroom.’

It seems like they’re communicating since they’re emitting various mana wavelengths while staring at each other.

Izuku’s body has been dragged backward by someone, he doesn’t know, and the teacher is loudly ordering his daemon to attack the door… _the door?_

‘ _Why the door?_ ’ Izuku’s mind finally starts processing the information and he tears his shell-shocked stare away from the two to his surrounding and witnesses something that’s impossibly even more shocking.

All daemons are lying still on the ground regardless of the students and teacher’s desperate plea for them to _please move and do something!_ to the unknown runic wall coating the room’s inner surface, preventing anyone from exiting.

Izuku cries harder.

One of his classmate’s desperate eyes land on him and she screams, “This is your fault! You useless good for no- _!!!_ ” Uknown runes circles her neck and no more voice could be heard.

“Do not talk ill about my summoner.” _Someone_ calmly but sternly orders. Izuku’s poor mind burns the image of Natsu _speaking human language out loud perfectly well_. Only the flames burning on his forehead gives away that he’s not!human. “Midoriya Izuku is a great person,” Izuku doesn’t feel _great_ with tears still flowing freely.

[Sorry for the mess,] Natsu’s voice rings inside his head, [✿’s mist ፨ has return to Aether and won’t return.] Indeed, the black cloaked daemon is gone, but the damage is don- [Let me fix this.]

 _Fix this_ involves summoning 2 more humanoid looking daemons that look like human twins with one being a long indigo-haired guy with one red eye and the other is a similarly indigo-haired girl wearing a skull-patterned eyepatch.

Izuku doesn’t know what happens, only that suddenly the noise level drops to zero and everyone are standing still with their eyes closed.

“D-don’t hurt them!” Izuku shakily pushes himself into standing position.

[Rest assured, we did this back when you first summon me and I’ve triple checked that everything works perfectly.]

‘You did _what?!_ ’ Izuku shouts inside his heart but keeps his mouth shut and dumbly watch as time seemingly goes backward. Everyone and their daemon are _back_ in their position before the chaos and Natsu turns back to his mini-lion form and tap the ground with his paw.

[Your position was here]

Izuku complies and after everyone/everything is on position, the twins-look-a-like morphed into a single indigo feathered owl-like daemon.

Then the continue button is pressed.

“Oh, you summon something.” His summoning teacher calls out with a hint of surprise. He turns to his daemon and ordered, “Go check it’s level.”

The black fox-like daemon with golden stripes glows silvery-white and the same glow engulfed the indigo owl-like.

“Eon,” black fox-like lets out after a few seconds.

“Tier 1 high-level,” his teacher raises an eyebrow, “Very good. now if you can improve your summoning rate by 90% you might be able to avoid make-up summoning class.”

“Y-yes,” Izuku gives an automatic reply while his eyes are busy darting around and sees nothing out of _ordinary_ , which in itself is the most not!ordinary thing.

“I’ve marked it, you can de-summon it and go home if you want,” the teacher left to grade another student.

Without ado, the indigo owl-like disappear and Natsu leaps to settle on his shoulder, _like normal_.

Izuku… （Q A Q ）

Izuku needs something stronger than, ‘ _Oh my fucking God…_ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Quoted from No Game No Life)  
> Sora : Sister… (I thought) that life is an impossible game. A game for masochist. But… _It has finally gone BUG-ed_! (TT⌓TT)  
> Shiro: _What is going on_? (TT▵TT)  
> Sora&Shiro: _It’s such a shitty game_!!! (TT⌓TT) (TT▵TT)
> 
> * * *
> 
> Info: Timeline wise at the start of ch 1, BnHA is at the very beginning, while KHR is set after the story with modifications to make it doable in agar.io-ified Aether world.


	4. There's Got to be a Morning After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because actions have consequences and Izuku have a self-sacrificing thing

_It needs to go._

 

(The Morning After the Last Chapter)

The sun is shining and the birds are chirping as Izuku mechanically done his daily routine.

Despite the chaotic nature of the events yesterday, Izuku fell asleep almost immediately after his head hit the pillow even if he _didn’t_ intend to sleep and only closing his eyes to focus.

His eyes turn and stare at Natsu in its mini-lion form.

_Twice is a coincidence_ , but is he ready to find out if it’s really a coincidence or not?

Yesterday… Yesterday is a wake-up call. The event that drops the scale out of his eyes. _Knowing_ that Over-Tiers are dangerous is not the same as _understanding_ it. Just because Natsu is _good_ to him, _doesn’t_ make him any less dangerous.

Physical and memory manipulation… Izuku isn’t sure, _can’t_ be sure that Natsu has never done it to him.

‘Normal polices won’t do, just like teachers, at most they’re Tier 3 summoners. I need to find someone stronger or yesterday would repeat and this time I’m not sure I’m can, _allowed_ to keep my memory,’ Izuku’s eyes caught a single poster of an All Might motivation poster plastered on the corner of his school’s notice board.

‘All Might…,’ anti-terrorism specialist, one of the handful Tier 5 summoners and his personal idol.

His eyes flick to the now-useless poster for Junior Summoning Tournament.

Under normal circumstances, a simple student like him would never be able to meet any Tier 5, but if he can win the tournament, the possibility exists…

He shakes his head, that path is closed already.

 

(Aldera Classroom)

“Great news everyone!” His homeroom teacher radiates excitement. “The Summoning Committee found out that Miss A, the one supervising your previous selection test, wasn’t doing her job properly, so you’ll have another chance in 2 days’ time!”

His teacher’s excitement is contagious and in no time, the class is filled with hopeful statements and disparaging remarks about the lady.

Izuku is an oddity with his still frame and silence.

[You’re not happy?] Natsu lightly asks.

What the teacher says might be the _truth_ , after all Miss A didn’t even bother checking their runes.

‘Or…,’ Izuku forces a smile, “I really can’t fail this time.”

* * *

(2 days later – re-selection)

It’s so easy to cheat. Laughably so.

Izuku _succeeds_ his summoning at first try with the fastest circle creating speed.

 

“…not that we’re not happy, of course this it’s such a great honor for a student of ours to participate in the event, but I’m afraid that…”

If Izuku’s result is actually _his_ , it would’ve strings very sharply when his summoning teacher not-so-subtly tries to convince the new examiner sent by the selection committee to give Izuku’s pass to another, a _better_ student. But right now, Izuku is a guy with a _mission_.

“Well, having good luck is a kind of strength,” their new examiner calmly replies and looks at Izuku, “Do _you_ want to compete?”

Izuku can feel his teacher’s heavy stare, urging him to say no. He can’t _say no_.

“Yes,” Izuku solemnly nods then adds, “ _Because_ my summoning rate is rather bad, I know and can draw a wide variety of summoning array very quickly. I might not win, but I can show something _interesting_.”

As a Festival sponsored by the government along with multiple companies, it’s an _investment_ , an event that needs something interesting to make a good story that _sells_.

The corner of the representative’s mouth curved up, “Indeed. You created a working circle with Ancient Mayan runes at the age of 15. An incredible feat that will make those who specialize in ancient runes envious. I’m looking forward to seeing your performance in competition.”

And that makes his participation final no matter how hard his headmaster backed by his summoning teacher tries.

Opposing them will bring Izuku trouble, but after he’s done with the festival, he’ll be having so much problem that one more wouldn’t make a difference.

* * *

* * *

(National Wide Junior Summoning Competition)

Izuku is standing in a huge field with 4000 other participants from schools all over Japan. All of them are wearing their respective school’s PE uniform and a numbered headband around their head.

Earlier his teacher placed his hand on Izuku’s shoulder.

_“Midoriya,” he says in a serious tone, “Since you’re wearing our school uniform, try your best to get through the preliminary mass-elimination round.”_

_Izuku’s goal is a lot higher than the preliminary round. He nods, mindful of the not!eyeglasses frame perching on the bridge of his nose. They’re only allowed to use and bring a very limited number of items for fairness sake, and a previously summoned daemon definitely doesn’t make the list._

_[Daemons are not allowed? Then it’s fine if I’m not a daemon?]_

_Izuku’s panic button is broken from over-slammed. His only response to Natsu’s transformation from a mini-lion to a full-length black cloak is a dead-eyed, “It’s too flashy.”_

Back to reality, Izuku listens to the explanation for the preliminary round.

**_“-teleportation runes will be activated so don’t panic and don’t interfere with the process!”_** The presenter, Miss Kayama makes a throat-cutting motion with a wide grin on her face.

**_“The round starts immediately after the teleportation, rules are simple!_ **

**_First, the round will end in 1 hour._ **

**_Second, you’ll be competing for each other’s headbands. If your headband is taken, you can take it back._ **

**_Third, at the end of the round, those who have their own headband and 10 or more other qualify for the next round._ **

**_Fourth, over-attack is not allowed! Unnecessarily and/or maliciously harming other participants will result in immediate disqualification!_ **

**_That’s all!”_** Miss Kayama raises her hand and the area glows as multiple teleportation daemons start the process, ** _“ROUND… START-”_**

****

_Flash!_

Izuku opens his eyes and scans his surroundings. He’s standing in the middle of a paved road in what looks like a typical city landscape, filled with buildings of various shape and height. He’s not alone, other participants are also teleported on the street with consistent distances between one another.

Izuku immediately runs inside the closest building and mutters, “I need to find a mana reactive stationery.”

[There are around 50 of them in this building,] Izuku isn’t going to question how Natsu knows, [First is in the left room.]

Izuku enters the said room, it’s an office with five desks filled with various stationaries and stacks of paper.

[It’s near the corner.]

He brisk-walk to the last table, near the corner and take one pen, “No label,” then another bunch, “None of them are labeled.”

[The black cap and white body one,] Natsu informs. There are several of them, Izuku grabs one, uncaps it and draw a line, then he places a single finger on top of it and tries to imbue it with mana. It doesn’t work.

He repeats the process until the one made by a board-marker look-a-like glows.

Found it.

Next, “I need something that can stop the others from moving for an extended period of time,” that would be the most efficient way instead of continuously fighting to safeguard the headband.

[Then call my Rain ፨. Draw circle for 災]

One oxymoron feeling mana signature that he can’t quite pinpoint. It feels like water that flows from fire.

‘Mirror array based on yin yang eight trigram concept,’ Izuku steps on top of the table and start writing on the pristine white wall. Now is not the time to care about propriety and he doesn’t have time to search for a level/non-tiled empty ground.

 

“ ** _Ouch, that looks painful!_** ” Commentator Yamada Hizashi exclaims as one of the participants give up on finding a proper summoning tool and goes for the nearest sharp object, “ ** _Listeners, do not try this at home! Blood can be used to summon, yes, but its over-conductivity means that 99 out of 100 circles will explode in your face!_**

**_Don’t do it! Instead be like Midoriya Izuku, the dark green hair from area b-27. While his luck is indeed very good, I find his lack of hesitation cool and his circle building speed even cooler!_ **

**_Aaaand look he’s done!_ **

**_The circle looks overly complicated but it’s working! Will he succeed? Will he?_ **

**_Bam!_ **

**_Listeners put your hands up cause we have our first successful summoning in this competition!!!“_ **

Midoriya Inko gasps clap her hands together in delight, “ _Izukuuuu!_ ”

 

[Hi there!] Izuku jolted when a new and unfamiliar voice cheerily sounds inside his head, [○ says we’re playing a game~]

‘I supposed it is a _game_ , of sort…,’ Izuku looks down to akita-inu like daemon with flame-like-water ( _water-like-flame_?) on its ears.

He sees Natsu’s… _friends? Family? Underlings?_ Quite often but never get the chance to know their ability… ‘Until _that incident_ that is… If this akita daemon is anywhere close to the indigo owl…’  

“Can you beat them, the other humans, without hurting them?”

[Sure do!] The akita-like opens its jaw and a sword-hilt materialize horizontally, [This body is not convenient, but I’ll manage, haha.]

Izuku’s expression remains unchanged.

‘Daemons’ body on earth is made up of mana, so _technically_ every daemon type _could_ create anything… _Technically_.

_It’s definitely not!weird for fire/water type daemon use a creation type skill._

_As if.’_

Thankfully Izuku isn’t here to be lowkey and not!suspicious because he’s failing so badly like no man has ever failed before.

“Let’s go,” he jogs outside. They have a battle to win and a war to lose.

 

(Yuuei’s Viewing Room)

“Oh? Water-type that is capable of materialization?” Yuuei’s principal, Nedzu’s black eyes gleam as he finds something _interesting_.

“Water?” Kan Sekijirō questioned.

It’s easy to see where his confusion came from since the trigram in the center of the circle is _fire_ and eight trigrams is a rarely seen array.

“The runes surrounding the _fire_ works to reverse it.”

“Then why not directly write _water_?”

“Curious isn’t it? _HaHaHaHa_ ,” Nedzu laughs and the other staff around him silently prays for the kid.

“Let’s see…,” Nedzu taps his tablet to see the kid’s personal information, “ _Aldera_?” He taps the school name, “Hmmm, I wonder if we can poach him. That kid is wasted in a third-rated academy.”

“ _No_.” Aizawa deadpanned.

Yuuei’s principal is very intelligent and he like puzzle the most but _they_ are the one who has to deal with those _interesting_ (troublesome) kids on a daily basis.

 

(Back to the field)

Izuku jogs out of the building to find the street empty of participants, “Can you find the nearest human?”

[2nd building on the right] Natsu’s voice sounds and the akita-like immediately runs right, leaving behind Izuku who is doing his best to catch up.

He hastily enters the said building just in time to see the akita-like _slash a guy in half_ with the water-like blade extruding from the sword hilt on its mouth.

Izuku’s eyes jaw drops but could form no word as he watches the guy crumpled to the ground in wide-eyed horror.

“ _S-stop_! **_Stop_**!” Izuku exclaims as he rushes to the guy’s side.

The water-like blade disappears and Izuku’s panic filled brain finally notes the lack of blood.

[He’s only sleeping] Natsu informs and a press to the guy’s wrist confirms the presence of steady normal pulses.

[ _No hurting_!] the akita-like chimes in.

Izuku presses a hand to his chest and takes a deep breath to calm his wildly racing heart.

‘Ten, nine, eight, seven,’ exhales, ‘Six, five, four, three,’ inhales, “Two, one, alright. _Alright_.” He straightened the guy’s position to a less weird/straining one then takes the guy’s headband.

“Can you make them faint less… _direct_?” Izuku asks in the steadiest voice he can muster.

[Sure!] the akita-like easily agrees.

“Alright, we need 9 more,” _victims_ , “Headbands.” Izuku wraps the guy’s headband around his wrist.

[There’s one human inside the next building.]

[On it!]

Once again Izuku is left running full speed to catch up. His brain is tired of looping _it’s not supposed to be able to do that_ , but, ‘ _It’s not supposed to be able to do that!_ ’

Water-type that bypasses human’s natural resistance to internal attack and put them to _sleep_?

If this doesn’t make him stands out like crazy, nothing will.

* * *

A single slash sends the female participant’s daemon back to aether and another one immediately makes her drowsy.

“How-,” she stops her sentence then she smartly lies down before her consciousness is fully gone. Last time someone tries to fight off the effect, they drop to the ground from half-kneeling position and Izuku winches as their face hit the asphalt.

“The tenth headband,” Izuku takes the object then freezes when a green-light shines on him from the above. “Wha-”

“ ** _This is an announcement. A spotlight, carried by flying drones, will shine on those who are carrying 10 or more headbands. Participants, please refrain from attacking the drones as it will result in immediate disqualification._** ”

Izuku’s mouth straightened and he secures the headband on his wrist, together with the others.

If they’re spreading everyone in an equal distance, then the size of this area will be kilometers wide. Hiding is too easy and not everyone can summon a daemon with tracking ability.

‘The easiest way is to store the headbands somewhere and retrieve it just as the round is about to end. But with no working clock placed here, you might not have the bands at the end of the hour which will result in disqualification.’

Izuku isn’t sure about the time, but he estimated that he still has 40-50 minutes, plenty of time to hide the bands and count down in secret… But again, he’s not here to play smart and safe.

He walks toward a building with double door, “Nobody is here right?”

[None.]

He opens both doors to the limit and leaves it like that. He walks to the back end of the lobby, rest his back against the wall and wait with his eyes staring outside the door.

“For everything that comes in, if it’s daemon send it back to Aether. If it’s human, put it to sleep,” Izuku makes his decision.

 

_Come._

_He will keep winning until it’s time to lose._


	5. The Price of Pride

In general, there are 3 types of responses that the participants give at the sudden appearance of a green light pillar and subsequent announcement;

First is the cautions type;

_Asui Tsuyu presses a finger onto her lips. How long has it been since the round start? She has just finished summoning and that person gathered 10 headbands already?_

_‘My capability is most likely not enough to win against them,’ she’s thankful that her position is far away from the light._

_Now, what’s the best way to start collecting headbands while maintaining distance._

 

Second is the apathetic type;

_Todoroki Shōto briefly glances at the light, ‘… The brightness might hinder vision to an extent,’ and returns his focus to the task at hand._

_“Over-attack isn’t allowed, but I’m dropping the temperature steadily while giving you many chances to surrender. If you’re frozen solid due to your needless stubbornness, it won’t be my fault,” he loudly proclaims as his one of his daemon, an ice type that’s roughly shaped like a masked snow woman, lets out a bell-like giggle._

_The ice type is steadily lowering the temperature of the area and the only place where no ice crystals form is around him and a circular area a meter in front of him where his fire type, shaped like a bipedal flaming boar, works to keep the temperature warm._

_A few seconds later a chattering voice sounds, “I- I g-give!” The owner of the voice walks out of the building she’s hiding at and collapses once she reaches the warm area._

_“H-here my he-headb-band,” she’s still shivering as she offers it._

_Shōto’s ice daemon glides forward to retrieve it and she flinches at the cold it emanated._

_After that, the participants give up one by one and ten minutes later the green light shines on Shōto without him needing to move an inch._

 

Third is the confident type;

Bakugou Katsuki curses as those spineless fucking pathetic trash background extras hide and flee very quickly. Finding and hunting them one by one is wasting his goddamn time.

“ ** _This is an announcement-_** ”

He listens with half an ear as he orders his fire type daemon to make surround the fucker with a fire ring, stopping him from running away.

“- ** _carrying 10 or more headbands-_** ”

The words yank his full attention.

Katsuki curses harder as he can see a green light several blocks away from his position.

“ _I give you 5 seconds_ ,” his hound-dog like daemon howls and the fire burns significantly hotter, “ _To give before I kill you_.”

“I give! I give!” The shit folds immediately and after taking the headband Katsuki marches toward the light.

 

Katsuki steps over a figure lying on the ground. She’s completely unconscious without any sign of injury. ‘Bastard has a manipulation type daemon.’

The light is now several meters away, it’s shining on the roof of a building, indicating that the bastard is inside. ‘Fucking coward is hiding?’

The building’s double door is wide open and he stops two building away with a scowl, ‘Mind games bullshit.’

“Burn whoever is inside,” he orders his daemon and it dashes towards the building. Just as the hound figure disappear behind the door, Katsuki’s frown deepens as the link between him and the hound is abruptly cut-off.

A clean sound, like a kamaitachi, and soft footsteps.

‘Not manipulation type,’ Katsuki takes out his summoning utensil and looks for the nearest flat surface.

‘Tsk, losers working together in a fucking _competition_ ,’ he slaps his hand on the circle and a larger, stronger fire type daemon is summoned.

The daemon’s body, shaped like a gigantic fire-bird, is taller and wider than Katsuki, making it a good shield.

“Move,” he commands then they approach the building from the other side of the street.

From the angle, he sees an empty floor and closed doors. As they get more parallel to the open door, Katsuki finally sees a figure standing and leaning on the far back wall and red eyes met with dark green.

“ _Stop_ ,” he orders and glowers, “ _What are you doing here, **Deku**?_”

A spike of annoyance runs through his body as, unlike before, Deku looks surprised but he doesn’t bow or looks away. Where is the fear? Where is the respect? Katsuki is the best summoner while Deku is a complete failure, he should know his fucking place.

Deku opens his mouth and absurdly says, “Bakugou, please walk away.”

“ _Haaah_?! _You_ ordering _me_ to _walk away_?!” Katsuki’s daemon lets out a piercing sound and spreads its fiery wings wide open.

“2 fucking months and you forget who you are already?” Katsuki sneers, “I’ll remind you, go and die!” Katsuki’s daemon flaps its wings forward and sends a wave of strong flames.

“..!” Katsuki jumps sideways to avoid the large water ball that shoots through the flames. His daemon fails to move and gets blasted off its feet to the wall behind.

The effect can be seen clearly, its formerly burning red flames are gone, leaving behind a grey-ish color. It tries to stand back up, but it moves extremely slowly like the air is thousand times denser.

“Bakugou,” Katsuki’s head eyes snap back to Deku. He’s no longer leaning and stands stiffly with a heavy frown on his face, “You could’ve hurt them.”

“ _Y-you!_ ” Indignations fills him at the fact that Deku dares to lecture him. Then comes the bewilderment. The fire-bird like is a Tier 2 mid-level daemon, for that damn water - _is it really water?_ \- dog of Deku to overpower and subdue it - _Katsuki knows water type effect on fire daemon, and it’s **not** like that_\- means that its at least Tier 2 _high_ -level.

_Impossible_.

“You _cheat_ ,” is the first thing that comes out, but with Deku’s goody-goody personality, “No, you,” the alternative is even more infuriating, “ _You_ , are you _hiding_ your capability before?!”

“ _What_? _No_!” Deku’s frown is replaced with wide-eyed shock, “Where do you even ge-”

“You find it _convenient,_ isn’t it? I have to repeat the same stupid pattern over and over again while you get to make anything you want cause, ‘ _yes, Midoriya, you can use whatever you want since you have difficulty summoning with standard runes_ ’,” he mimics the summoning teacher’s line.

Deku’s furiously denies it, “No! Just… No! Seriously no! Urgh, how do you come into that conclusion?!”

Katsuki clenches his hands tightly at the (indirect) confirmation.

Deku’s theoretical summoning score is always, _always_ the highest no matter how hard Katsuki tries. Despite its efficiency, standard runes just don’t have that bullshit fake grandness that ancient/obscure runes have.

How many times he heard the teachers sighing and says, ‘ _If only you could summon something with those runes_.’

‘He fucking _could_ …,’ Katsuki’s frame trembles slightly from rage and humiliation.

“ _Get up_ ,” Katsuki orders with gritted teeth and channels a large amount of mana to the fire-bird like.

It whines and color comes back to its body as its fire starts burning again.

‘Not enough, not enough, _more_ ,’ Katsuki channels _more_ and _more_.

‘ ** _PIIIII!!!_** ’ the daemon shrills and its formerly red flame transforms into hotter blue.

 

[If he doesn’t stop transferring, his mana pathway will be damaged] Natsu gives the information without any hint of concern.

But Izuku is. Concerned. Despite his attitude, Bakugou is a gifted summoner that also works very hard, a quality that Izuku admires. Izuku told him to walk away because Izuku _is_ cheating and Bakugou deserves better than to suffer at a cheater’s hand.

“Stop, _please_ ,” just this once, please _listen_ , “You’ll hurt your mana pathway!”

Bakugou’s face is rapidly paling but his expression is stubborn and Izuku knows it’s a lost cause when he sneers and throws his usual line, “ _Go die_.”

‘I’m sorry’, Izuku apologizes inside his mind and gives his order/permission, “ _Go_.”

[I have been waiting~]

It’s disheartening to watch Bakugou’s daemon disappears with one slash and him falling unconscious with another one, just like all the other participants before him.

Izuku’s shoulder drops as Natsu’s Rain( _not Water?_ ) drags Bakugou’s unconscious body inside and lines him up, _just like all the other participants before him_.

‘You really deserve better than to lose unjustly at preliminary round…,’ Izuku laments.

* * *

At the end of the round, Izuku has 28 extra headbands, placing him on the upper half of the ranking board. He isn’t surprised when the staffs lead him to a different area, away from the rest of the participants.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, we’re doing random checks to ensure that everything is in order,” they say and Izuku compliantly stands still inside a complex glowing circle with several summoners surrounding him.

15 minutes later he’s free to go with slight disappointment and discontentment inside his heart.

If they can’t sense Natsu, they have no chance of sending it back.

But if they can’t sense Natsu after dozens of different checks and specially drawn runes…

Izuku tries to not let his feeling shows while giving himself a pep-talk, ‘It’s alright. It’s just the first preliminary round. If I keep doing the impossible, someone will notice… They have to…’

* * *

(Break Room)

Yuuei’s 1-A students are lounging inside their designated break room.

A small portion of the class is lying with their head down in silence as they rest to recover mana for the next round in 30 minutes. The larger portion of the class is busy talking and sharing about their preliminary round’s experience.

“Man, I end up in front of a summoning utility store!” Eijirō exuberantly tells.

“Ehhh, what’s that? So lucky!” Denki replies with some envy.

“Well…,” Eijirō winches, “The guy beside me notices and immediately run like mad inside, which grab the others’ attention and _man_ , that place is an instant warzone! A guy even goes so far as to summon a fire element and _burn down the store_!” he ends in a scandalous tone.

Several people gasp.

“ _Seriously_?” Denki asks with wide eyes.

“How barbaric,” Momo disapproves.

“That’s very dangerous,” Mezō also disapproves in his own way.

“Speaking of pyromaniacs,” honestly Hitoshi doesn’t really care about that guy, but they’re classmates so…, “What about Bakugou?”

“Huh?” The class finally realizes his absence.

 

10 minutes later Momo, as the class representative, calls their homeroom teacher’s number and put her phone in loudspeaker mode.

[ _What?_ ] Aizawa-sensei asks in his usual deadpanned no-nonsense way.

“Good morning, Aizawa-sensei,” Momo replies properly, “I apologize for bothering you, but Bakugou-san isn’t here in our break room and none of us have any information about his whereabouts.”

[ _He’s asleep in the infirmary._ ]

“Asleep?” “Infirmary?” “Huh?”

Tsuyu tilts her head slightly and asks, “Does he pass the preliminary round?”

[ _No_.]

The room falls into silence before chaos ensues.

[ ** _Silence_**.] They shut their mouth close in an almost pavlovian response.

[ _Take it as a lesson. Don’t be arrogant, understand that there are a lot of people who are better than you. **Got it?**_ ]

“““Y-Yes!””” They answer him with hesitation and confusion coloring their voice.

[ _Prepare yourself, the next round starts in 12 minutes._ ] And with that, the call disconnects.

Everyone sobers up, even Shōto who is resting on the corner cracks open his eyes.

While they might not have positive opinions about Bakugou’s attitude, all of them know that he’s _strong_. The idea of Bakugou losing in the preliminary round when all of them pass is just… unbelievable…

* * *

(Infirmary)

Shōta ends the call and walks pass multitudes of busy staffs, worried guardians and injured participants and goes inside the room his problem child resides in.

Their head healer, Shūzenji Chiyo, is already waiting inside. He closes the door and she skips the pointless trivialities to immediately inform him about Bakugou’s condition, “This child falls unconscious because of sudden mana stagnation. Right now his mana flow is slower than what’s healthy, but it’s improving over time. He should wake up on his own in half a day.”

Shōta frowns and informs back, “The committee can’t find any evidence of foul play, they’re letting that Midoriya kid continue,” he says the last part with a disapproving tone.

Shūzenji leans back on her seat, “Maybe Midoriya isn’t cheating.”

“An unknown 14 to 15 years old kid that came from 3rd rated school who can summon at least Tier 3 daemon,” Shōta flatly spells out the irregularities, “If he’s not cheating his way to glory then the committee is letting an overly talented kid with unknown plan competes.”

Shūzenji is giving him that soft look people give when they think he’s being an _overly worried mother hen_. He’s _not_. It has been proven time and time again that _people with more power than they should have_ \+ _hidden agenda_ = _problem_. Their inability to understand something that simple is illogical.

“Even if Bakugou is right, the timing doesn’t make sense,” he continues, “Midoriya should’ve shown his power when entrance examination is in season and he could’ve gotten into any high academy he wants with a full scholarship.

Why now at an event that he doesn’t know will hap-,” Shōta closes his mouth and ponders. _Why now_ also applies to this event.

The summoning minister that suddenly pushes this event forward by a few years and the kid who - _if he’s truly not cheating_ \- suddenly decides to stop hiding his capabilities. The probability of the two incidents not having a connection is high… but why does the slim probability bother him so much...

_overly worried mother hen_

_Tsk_ , shut up, he’s _not_.


	6. It's the End of the World as We Know It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _laughs nerveously and points at the series' title_ > KHR : The Invasive Species Story

(Over 50 Years Before)

Quirk Minister, titled All-for-One, comes from a humble beginning. Talented but poor, he spends his childhood in envy again those less talented and less intelligent kids who can get everything he can’t… But he’s not going to lay down and accept his fate.

 

Part-timing in an antique shop is definitely not a glorious occupation, but some of the objects are interesting and precious, the lack of customers gives him plenty of time to study and he’s good enough to convince the occasional customers to buy antiques for over the selling price and pocketed the margin.

Today he is deciphering the newly arrived ancient manuscripts. It’s hard to tell whether the manuscripts are lost or fake knowledge when it describes the existence of Weather Elements. Of Storm that Disintegrates. Lightning that Hardens. Cloud that Propagates. And Sky that should never, _ever_ be summoned.

‘This might be the chance I need,’ All-for-One carefully flips the brittle pages and _continue_.    

 

[Well well~]

Above the circle drawn with his beloved brother’s blood and mana, floats one very humanoid looking daemon with a pair of pure white wings emerging from his back.

[Me as a summon? How exciting.] The daemon’s smile looks like how his mana signature feels. Sweet like artificial vanilla with a sharp aftertaste. [How about a greeting then?] It claps its hands and the area around them are reduced to ruins.

All-for-One watches with cold interest while his beloved brother is horrified.

“No! Stop! What have you done?! I never order you to do so!”

[A human thinking you can control the 天天天? How arrogant~] Without permission, the daemon flies away and wreaking havoc wherever he goes.

Later the incident will be known as the first documented case of Over-Level. What is not documented, however, are the last sentences of both parties.

[You’re interesting, I’ll let you live so call me again sometimes~] somehow the daemon knows that All-for-One is the one orchestrating the summoning. It waves with a smile before disappearing from the lack of Mana.

The other sentence belongs to his beloved brother before he dies from Mana deprivation.

[Brother, why? Please don’t…]

Why?

Why not?

* * *

(Over 50 Years Later - Present Day)

If Izuku is being dramatic, he would liken the winner’s podium with an execution platform. Each step up is one step nearer to The End and he goes through it with half-determination and half-resignation.

The medal giver is _All-Might_ himself and Izuku tries his best to not cry or scream.

“Congratulations Young Midoriya!” All-Might’s smile is as wide and bright as his posters, “Your performances are splendid, I can’t find any fault!”

‘ _No_ , please do find fault!’

 Izuku can’t muster a smile as he admits sadly, “I really don’t deserve this.”

All-Might’s pat on his shoulder is meant to be encouraging, but it gives the reverse effect on Izuku and he lowers his head to hide his expression.

 

His salvation comes a few hours later when an invitation for a _talk_ with the Quirk Minister arrives.

* * *

(2 Days Later)

Izuku is so nervous that he feels tired of feeling nervous when he steps into the waiting black car with Natsu’s mini-lion form lying on its usual spot on his shoulder.

“We’re heading to the Minister’s office, it’s a one and half hour ride, please tell me if you need anything,” the driver politely informs.

“Yes,” Izuku gives a simple reply and stares outside the window.

He sees the city landscape change to fields then forests. They’re moving into an isolated and remote location. At one point, the driver stops and drops him off at a single path with rows of trees surrounding it with a brisk command of, “Go forward,” before he drives-off the other way.

He could see a clearing at the end of the path, and at this point, even if the Quirk Minister is a hippy tree hugging naturalist, nobody would believe that the clearing is an ‘ _office_ ’. Izuku inhales slowly and quietly.

‘This is it,’ he walks and walks until he steps into the clearing and the ground lit up in unknown runes.

“Young Midoriya!” All-Might calls out from the right edge of the circular clearing/runic circle. A quick glance to the left confirms the presence of the Quirk Minister and their position makes an equilateral triangle.

“I apologize for this but that Over-Tier daemon of yours need to return to Aether!” All-Might continues and Izuku nods.

Game Over.

The barely-there weight of Natsu’s mini-lion form on his shoulder is gone as it stands on its own humanoid-form feet in front of Izuku and, to Izuku’s surprise, says, [Thank you. For everything.]

“I’m sorry,” Izuku murmurs his reply.

Another flash and Izuku sees another humanoid daemon standing in front of All-Might. Nicknamed Princess, widely recognized as the strongest daemon in the entire world.

A chuckle draws Izuku’s attention away from the daemon to the Quirk Minister.

“Don’t we all love when the plan goes smoothly for a change?” The Quirk Minister smiles and light flashes in front of him.

Izuku’s eyes widen when he sees _another_ humanoid daemon for he never knows that the Minister can summon one. It’s has a male form, slightly older than him, with light-purple eyes, white hair and equally white wings behind him.

[We sure do~] an unfamiliar happy voice rings through the clearing and Izuku’s reflexes save his retinas from severe damage as he shuts his eyes a fraction of a second before strong light, strong enough that it’s still blinding even through his eyelids, shines from the runes.

Izuku’s heart starts to race faster as unknown warmth flows through him and his brain finally admits that something is _wrong_.

Minutes later the light dissipates and Izuku gingerly opens his eyes to see balls of light of various sizes and colors floating down from the huge circular darkness high above in the sky.

“Gentlemen,” the Quirk Minister’s tone, filled with confident satisfaction, is jarring against Izuku’s confusion, “Welcome to the new world,” his smile is wider than before as fireball burns in front of him.

“All-for-One, what’s happening?” All-Might voices out their confusion but the Minister hums instead of answering.

“Well I have guessed it would be like that,” his words don’t answer anything. The fireball’s fire dissipates revealing a red ball of light underneath and when another one touches the Minister and he disappears. Leaving behind two extremely confused individuals in his wake.

 

When in doubt, call Nighteye.

All-Might does exactly that a few seconds after All-for-One disappear only to notice that the complete lack of signals.

Cursing is not his thing, but it’s very tempting to do when the pre-made array _does.not.work_ and All-Might haven’t failed since his youth more than 20 years ago.

“You don’t have to summon them, they’re _here_ ,” Young Midoriya’s panic colored voice matches his wide eyes and disbelieving expression. Both of his hands are raised to chest level, palms up and multiple light ball floats above it. “All-Might, these light balls are _daemons_.”

All-Might balks at the idea and implication, “Certainly these match their form when they’re at Aether.” _But_

“Fire,” the word comes out of Midoriya’s mouth and one of the light balls burst into flames, not unlike the fireball in front of the Minister before.

“Water,” another one is transformed into a floating blob.

All-Might’s gaping mouth finally produce a sound, “E-Enchantment.” For a second nothing happens then a light ball descends quickly from above and when it touches his body, he feels familiar power flowing through him.

‘No way…,’ but it’s happening.

* * *

Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa is down on the street working together with other police officers to calm the panicking masses while a part of him wants to join them.

Their society relies heavily on daemons and when the sudden light takes away their ability to summon, the proverbial and literal gears break down. The appearance of circular patches of darkness and the light balls floating out of it makes the situation a hundred time worse.

[ ** _Everyone_** ] the telepathic voice is loud and judging by the way the chaos stops, everyone receives it.

[ ** _This is Japan’s Quirk Minister, Tier Five summoner titled All-for-One speaking-_** ]

 

 (5 Minutes Ago)

All-for-One’s smile is a constant thing as with a single thought, the Central Tower’s upper levels are taken apart and rebuilt into an open platform with a throne in the middle of it.

He sits down on the throne and enjoys the view.

‘So this is what absolute power feels like,’ a world where his every thought will turn into reality… Except for one. The daemons refuse to harm the other two worthless beings since they’re the two Skies’ summoner, ‘But there are a lot of ways to get rid of them without utilizing daemons,’ he promises to get rid of them soon.

First and foremost, he needs to consolidate his position.

‘Broadcast my thought to everyone,’ dozens of daemons surround his head and he starts thinking in English.

[ ** _Everyone_** ]

[ ** _This is Japan’s Quirk Minister, Tier Five summoner titled All-for-One speaking_** ]

[ ** _10 minutes ago, the border dividing Earth and Aether dissolves and as the result, you can see the gates of Aether in form of circular darkness above your head_** ]

[ ** _The light balls are daemon and you don’t need to summon them as they’re already here on Earth_** ]

[ ** _Have no fear-]_** _for I can grant you the power to control these daemons_

**_[-for these daemons will follow your wish as long as your wish is fair]_** All-for-One’s smile turns cold as the telepathic transmitter he receives is different than his thought.

“You lie to me?”

[ ** _This event is life-changing, but it's for the better_** ] the transmission continues in his voice.

[ ** _I hope that all of you will live your life the best that you could, that’s all_** ]

Without his command, All-for-One’s rises from his throne and the Central Tower’s structure is re-built back to its previous state.

[A human thinking you can control the 天天天?]

An amused voice throws the same line it throws more than 50 years ago inside his head as the familiar winged form appears in front of him.

[How arrogant~]

All-for-One has, in fact, consider the possibility of the daemon _lying_ when no other daemon can, but he goes on with the plan for he believes that the other outcome is that this ಎ will destroy the world and watching the world ends because of him is not a bad feeling.

[ಎ would! But you see the thing is, that ಎ is dead~! I’m the next incarnation of ಎ and I like this incarnation of ✿ and ○ so sorry not sorry and good work, _human_! As a thank you, you can relax for daemons will take care of _everything_ for you!] It happily waves goodbye and disappears.

All-for-One’s body moves again and no matter how hard he wills it, he can’t take back the control for his body. His mind rages against the thought of being a prisoner inside his own body and being forced to watch it do _good_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next (and last) chapter is Epilogue(+ explainations), so read it first before throwing questions and/or proverbial pitchforks!
> 
> _Takes the time to run into the nearest bunker_


	7. The End of the Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This is a double update! Make sure you've read the previous chapter!

Adaptability is one of human’s strongest and most valuable traits.

3 days after _The Great Merging_ , the basic foundation of society returns to (mostly) normal. Schools are postponed until further notice, but electricity and communications are working again and with it, various goods and services provider.

And on the 4th day, Izuku wakes up and opens his eyes to a group of baby-sized daemons with various shapes and colors lounging and lying around on a fluffy circular bed. Which is-

‘ _Not dealing with this sh*t_ ,’ he closes his eyes and drags the blanket up to cover his head.

 

Izuku toss and turn, toss and turn, apparently, it’s hard to fall back asleep when your head is filled with emotions, questions, and statements. _Go figure_.

He breathes in deeply thenexhale it slowly, repeat that a few times then he lowers his blanket and opens his eyes to see multiple eyes of different color staring back in his direction.

“Do I want to know?” He says mostly to himself.

[Yes?]

Izuku shows a long-suffering face, “Alright. Tell me.”

[Aether needs time to recover its natural mana.]

‘So the daemons migrate to Earth because it’s full of mana-producing creatures that can’t use them,’ Izuku spends half-a-second to mourns Human’s drop from the king of the food chain to the 2nd place before continuing.

“Why causes Aether’s mana depletion?”

[It takes a large amount of mana to create, um, your equivalent of sentient robots, A.I.? That can hold the burden of cycling the Flames necessary to keep Aether from collapsing for an infinite amount of time.]

Izuku understands those words individually, but he’s missing way too much information to understand the sentence as a whole. He could ask for further explanations which would probably take hours… Or he could ask something more meaningful, like,

“ _Recover_ means that this… _World Merging_ isn’t permanent?”

[No.]

Izuku slumps in relief at the answer, “How long until Aether recover?”

Natsu hums, [At this rate… around 20 to 30 years?]

‘20 to 30 years… I’ll be a middle-aged man at that time…,’ Izuku stares absentmindedly on the multi-color daemons and ponders about the future that’s more uncertain than ever.

* * *

(20 Years Later)

(A Certain Prestigious University)

(Midday)

“Today is very enlightening, thank you very much Rector Midoriya,” one of the Theoretical Summoning professors bowed and Izuku has long given up trying to make them stop over-respecting him.

After _The Great Merging_ , Summoner’s Tiers are (temporarily) changed into Wisher Tier which is based on their capability to make(convince) the daemons to grant their wish. With ○ by his side, every wish, even those mundane or unfair ones, that otherwise would never be granted, _will_ be granted. Something that only happens to exactly 2 other humans in the entire world.

The only hardship that comes to Izuku in these 20 years is the one that comes from his own conscience.

He waves off ○’s offer to teleport and walks home by his own feet for a change.

Along the way, he passes by a park filled with children’s laughter and balls of light following each of them. None of their parents are here, but it doesn’t matter. Unselfish wish for protection is Tier 0 skill, one that drops crime level to near 0.

‘You really can’t let it stay this way?’ the world right now is very close to a utopia where harmful unfair wishes never coming true.

[Not for long. We don’t want to ruin the balance of Earth’s mana.]

‘Too bad,’ he smiles sadly.

The only silver lining is that they know about the time limit and have been preparing for when the world returns back to _normal_.

* * *

 

_[Thank you for being a good human, Izuku! You’re a great help!]_

_○’s says as it transforms into a gigantic orange light ball and floats up into the gate._

_‘That should be my word! Thank you ○!’_

_Brief warmth fills him before ○’s form disappears and the gate closes._

_Izuku is left staring longingly at the first unobstructed view of the sky in years._

 

* * *

 

 (1 Month Later)

Anger, sadness, and frustration are the most common expression in Summoning Class.

These students used to be proud Tier 3 or 4 Wisher yet almost none of them manage to summon successfully. It’s normal and expected, after all, they have never utilize their mana for summoning before.

_Snap_

“I _just_ …,” one of the students grits out while tightly gripping the broken chalk, “Don’t give a-”

“ _Cough!_ ” the student beside them interrupts.

The student stops and takes a deep breath before resuming, “Midoriya-sensei, what if I don’t _care_ about the elements? I just want to summon something…”

“Basic array that corresponds to your mana signature will give you the best chance of summoning something,” the student looks like they’re about to cry at Izuku’s textbook answer.

“Although there is an array that is not limited by elements and Tier does exist,” Izuku picks up a chalk, “It’s not a _good_ array since the percentage of summoning is abysmal and the lack of restrain means that it can go wrong in many different ways.”

He finishes the array and stares silently, ‘This is the array that summoned _○_ all those years ago…’

“Sensei?”

Izuku’s focus snaps back to reality, “Right. This is for your knowledge only, as you can see the array is made up of-”

* * *

The Skies are the chosen overseer of Aether, they’re daemons that couldn’t, _shouldn’t_ be summoned to Earth… But 20 years is a long time and Izuku _wish_ …

Izuku shakes his head to clear it from dangerous thought only to catch a familiar yellow/orange at the corner of his eyes. He stiffens and rigidly turns his head to look at his shoulder.

_The hell_ , _holy shit_ , and _fuck_ compete for the honor of representation Izuku’s feeling.

asdf$%^&, ‘○! What are you doing here?!’

[Yes and no] and Izuku _stares_.

‘ _What_?’

[I am made from ○ and inherits ○’s memories, but I’m not ○]

Izuku isn’t going to dive into the philosophical trench of what makes you, _you_. Nope.

‘ _Why_ are you here?’

[Observation? The number of daemons summoned is a low lower than we expected also the boundary is weaker than before and some daemons manage to slip through it, which is not good. Help me, please? I only inherits a fraction of ○’s power so I really can’t do much.]

‘Of course,’ Izuku promises then hesitates a bit before saying, ‘Welcome back…’

[I’m back] ○(‘s clone? Fragment? Izuku isn’t sure but _something_ is better than _nothing_ ) nudges Izuku’s chin with its head and he smiles.

Even without its power, ○’s presence is enough for him. Izuku is not that useless child anymore, this time he’ll manage by his own strength.

 

_If life is a story, a chapter is ending and a new one has just begun._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explaination Corner;
> 
> The end note on ch 3 : " _Timeline wise at the start of ch 1, BnHA is at the very beginning, while KHR is set after the story with modifications to make it doable in agar.io-ified Aether world._ "
> 
> So the ಎ that AfO summons the first time (via/by sacrificing his brother) is the insane one from KHR TYL arc, while the one that appears in ch 6 is after the story, so the one from Curse of the Rainbow arc.
> 
> The Three Great Skies exists and so is Kawahira (whose form is unidentified not!blob, he blends with Aether itself).
> 
> The Arcobaleno curse exists but since the mechanism of agar.io is that if you die, you "reset" as a new blob, VIndice doesn't exists. As the result they have to _make_ new not-quite-daemons whose purpose is to bear the curse.
> 
> But making them takes a lot of mana and in the end it imbalance Aether and now not!blob kawahira is not!happy.   
> ✿'s proposal is for ○ to consume it (remember: agar.io-ified) and use it extra power to "fix" Aether.  
> ○ : No!  
> Everything else: No!
> 
> In the end ಎ makes up for it's previous (insane) incarnation behavior by literally offering The Earth (and thus this story happens)
> 
> Now Izuku's role in this story;  
> ch 6 : " _for these daemons will follow your wish as long as your wish is fair_ "  
> But "fair" is tricky even for human, let alone for daemons who really doesn't know what's good and what's bad for human.  
> And that's where Izuku comes in, as a measuring stick / judgment scale (even if he doesn't realize it).
> 
> (Probably unwanted) bonus:  
> I really want to end this story at the center+italics sentences, but I'm afraid to be gutted, so you get the next part.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Now that it's over, feel free to throw pitchforks and have a nice day owo)/~
> 
> * _runs_ *

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, feel free to ask all questions except for future plan/event
> 
> \+ The AU-ness is quite heavy, please inform if you find it confusing / too infodump, thx :)


End file.
